encyclopediafandomcom-20200222-history
Sunny Afternoon
"Sunny Afternoon" is a song by The Kinks, written by chief songwriter Ray Davies.2 The track later featured on the Face to Face album as well as being the title track for their 1967 compilation album. Like its contemporary "Taxman" by The Beatles, the song references the high levels of progressive tax taken by the British Labour government of Harold Wilson.34 Its strong music hall flavour and lyrical focus was part of a stylistic departure for the band (begun with 1965's "A Well Respected Man"), which had risen to fame in 1964–65 with a series of hard-driving, power-chord rock hits.1 Contents 1 Background 2 Release and reception 3 Covers 4 References 5 External links Background "Sunny Afternoon" was first written in Ray Davies' house when he was sick. I'd bought a white upright piano. I hadn't written for a time. I'd been ill. I was living in a very 1960s-decorated house. It had orange walls and green furniture. My one-year-old daughter was crawling on the floor and I wrote the opening riff. I remember it vividly. I was wearing a polo-neck sweater. — Ray Davies5 Davies said of the song's lyrics, "The only way I could interpret how I felt was through a dusty, fallen aristocrat who had come from old money as opposed to the wealth I had created for myself." In order to prevent the listener from sympathizing with the song's protagonist, Davies said, "I turned him into a scoundrel who fought with his girlfriend after a night of drunkenness and cruelty."5 "Sunny Afternoon" was supposedly written during a period of time where the band's songwriter, Ray Davies, was listening to only Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Glenn Miller, and Bach. The song was recorded quickly, during a session described by Ray Davies as "atmospheric." Sunny Afternoon was made very quickly, in the morning, it was one of our most atmospheric sessions. I still like to keep tapes of the few minutes before the final take, things that happen before the session. Maybe it's superstitious, but I believe if I had done things differently—if I had walked around the studio or gone out—it wouldn't have turned out that way. The bass player went off and started playing funny little classical things on the bass, more like a lead guitar: and Nicky Hopkins, who was playing piano on that session, was playing "Liza"—we always used to play that song—little things like that helped us get into the feeling of the song. At the time I wrote Sunny Afternoon I couldn't listen to anything. I was only playing The Greatest Hits of Frank Sinatra and Dylan's Maggie's Farm—I just liked it's whole presence, I was playing the Bringing It All Back Home LP along with my Frank Sinatra and Glenn Miller and Bach—it was a strange time. I thought they all helped one another, they went into the chromatic part that's in the back of the song. I once made a drawing of my voice on Sunny Afternoon. It was a leaf with a very thick outline—a big blob in the background—the leaf just cutting through it. — Ray Davies, Rolling Stone, 10 November 1969567 Release and reception Released as a single on 3 June 1966, it went to No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart on 7 July 1966, remaining there for two weeks.8 The track also went to No. 1 in Ireland on 18 July 1966. In America, it peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart early autumn 1966.9 The promotional video for the single featured the band performing in a cold, snowy environment. "Sunny Afternoon" was placed at No. 200 on Pitchfork Media's list of The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s.10 The song is featured in and is the title song of West End musical Sunny Afternoon. Covers The song has been covered by performers including: The Standells on their 1967 album The Hot Ones! Jan and Dean on their album Silver Summer (1985) Jimmy Buffett on his Fruitcakes album (1994) Arjen Anthony Lucassen on his Strange Hobby (1997) Tommy Scott, in a duet with Tom Jones, on Jones' Reload album (1999), Bob Geldof, included on the four-CD compilation, Great Songs of Indifference (2005) The Cat Empire performed the song for Triple J's "Like A Version" Series in 2009. Take That also used the backing music on the track "Kidz" from their 2010 album Progress Drake Bell performed the song on The Ring Master11 and on his 2014 album, Ready, Steady, Go! A gypsy swing cover of this song by the French group Opa Tsupa Space Nellie McKay covered the song on her 2015 album My Weekly Reader. Stereophonics covered the song which appeared as a B-side on the Just Looking single on 1999. References 1.^ Jump up to: a b c d Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 102. ISBN 0-85112-250-7. 2.Jump up ^ "6 Music - Kinks reunion exclusive". BBC. 4 October 2006. Retrieved 2014-04-06. 3.Jump up ^ MacDonald 2005, p. 200. 4.Jump up ^ Everett 2010, p. 48. 5.^ Jump up to: a b c "Sunny Afternoon". Songfacts. 6.Jump up ^ Jovanovic, Rob. God Save The Kinks: A Biography. 7.Jump up ^ Hinman, Doug. All Day and All of the Night. 8.Jump up ^ "Bartley Gorman King of the Gypsies". Maxim. Retrieved 18 April 2011. 9.Jump up ^ "Billboard Hot 100". Billboard (Nielsen Company) 78 (40): 18. 1966. Retrieved 30 June 2011. 10.Jump up ^ "Staff Lists: The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s". Pitchfork. 2006-08-14. Retrieved 2014-04-06. 11.Jump up ^ "Drake Bell - Sunny Afternoon & Interview On The Ring Master". YouTube. 2013-11-21. Retrieved 2014-04-06. External links The Official Ray Davies Web Site The Official Ray Davies Forum - "The Old Grey Board" The Official Ray Davies Forum on YouTube Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics Category:The Kinks songs Category:Jan and Dean songs Category:1966 singles Category:Pye Records singles Category:UK Singles Chart number-one singles Category:Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Category:Number-one singles in Norway Category:Jimmy Buffett songs Category:Song recordings produced by Shel Talmy Category:Songs written by Ray Davies Category:Tom Jones (singer) songs Category:RPM Top Singles number-one singles Category:Counterculture of the 1960s Category:Reprise Records singles